Obliviate?
by brokenhrtsville
Summary: HG Oneshot. Harry, in his brilliance, has taken to snogging Ginny and Memory Charming her afterwards. What will happen when he accidentally erases more than he meant to?


_Harry's world isn't mine; I just like to play with it._

**Obliviate?**

Harry Potter was wracked with supreme guilt. Everywhere he went, from Care of Magical Creatures to Quidditch training, he managed to find something that reminded him of his recently acquired, mildly controversial pastime, and those unexpected signs were enough to make him want to confess his many transgressions and swear to never do it again. He meant it too; he'd never do it again.

But then he'd leave wherever he was, he'd see her, and he'd forget his heartfelt vow. He'd see her, walking down the hallway, head thrown back with laughter, eyes sparkling, and all thoughts would leave his head except for those revolving around her. He'd catch her eye, touched by her concern as she noticed him standing there, in the shadows, alone, and then he'd lose his breath as she left her friends and headed his way. He'd steel himself against the bizarre influence she always seemed to have on him, and he'd tell himself that this time, he'd smile, he'd say hello, they'd share some polite small talk, and they'd go their separate ways. He'd convince himself that he'd be all right.

But then, just like always, Ginny Weasley would step within a few inches of himself, and she'd crinkle her forehead adorably, worried by his strange behavior. Just like always, she'd ask him what was wrong in a perplexed sort of voice, and, just like always, he'd lose control, shove her up against the wall of the dark alcove he'd been standing in, and he'd snog the hell out of her before she knew what was happening. Every time, he'd think to himself,

"This is it. This time, I'm going to tell her how I feel and I'm going to make things right between us…" But every time, he'd pull away and see the terrifying confusion swirling in her eyes, along with questions he didn't know how to answer, and he'd chicken out. Every time, he'd slip his wand out of his robes and mutter,

"I'm sorry, Ginny," before murmuring the word that had become the very bane of his existence.

"_Obliviate!"_

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Harry Potter was utterly depressed. The sight of Ginny Weasley hurrying away from him, embarrassed at having found herself inexplicably standing in front of him, blinking with confusion and possessing no memories of how she came to be standing there, again, was threatening to make his head explode like a game of Exploding Snap. He thought back to the first time he had been inexplicably overcome by emotion and had kissed Ginny until his head spun around, only to be seized with terror afterwards and blast her with a Memory Charm before she could get a word in edgewise.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid…" he groaned to himself, banging his head gently on the tabletop in front of him before sitting back up and attempting in vain to distract himself with "Standard Book of Spells, Year Six". Unfortunately, her face kept floating to the top of his consciousness and drowning out even the moons of Neptune. He whimpered in despair.

"Okay, Potter," he muttered to himself, hiding behind his large textbook so the rest of the library wouldn't notice his conversation with himself and find another bit of evidence pointing towards his so-called lunacy. "You got yourself into this, so you can get yourself out." He pulled a fresh sheet of parchment towards him, dipped his quill into his inkpot, and began to jot down his jumbled thoughts.

"There are two things to do. A- Tell her how I feel. This has the following pros: getting rid of the little habit that is plaguing my life, finding out how she feels about me, and possibly earning the right to kiss her all the time and having her remember it. However, it has the following cons: possible rejection, possibly fury from the scariest redheaded witch since Mrs. Weasley, and attack/bodily harm from six overprotective prats," Harry paused to consider what he had written and continued. "B- Don't say anything, just bloody quit snogging her without her permission! This has the following pros: no more guilt; and the following cons: no more Ginny kisses."

Harry read over the entire list before shaking his head and tearing it to shreds with his bare hands.

"They're both terrible options!"

And just like that, the remains of his list still clutched in his hands, his head on its way to bang on the tabletop again, she walked into the library, and every doubt and concern flew out his head like Hedwig after a rat. All that mattered was that she was in sight, alone, and walking towards him with a smile on her face. Harry made to stand up, possibly out of politeness and possibly because he had been seized by an involuntary urge to grab her and run away to do naughty things with her, as she sat down next to him and opened the large textbook she'd had under her arm.

"Hi, Harry," she said, smiling at him. "I've got loads of Charms to read; do you mind if I keep you company?"

Harry tried to say something (anything) but was only able to shake his head and offer her a smile so nervous it probably looked like he'd been smiling with his mouth full of sawdust. She started to read, quill scratching occasionally as she took notes, and Harry steeled himself in preparation for an intelligent conversation with Ginny Weasley.

Or at least a conversation that didn't end with memory loss.

"Gin-" Harry began, but the moment was shattered when Draco Malfoy, flanked as usual by Crabbe and Goyle, strutted into the library, sneered, and sauntered over to their table.

"Potter! In here to get a little studying done? Hoping to get enough questions right to win over the Mudblood, are we?"

Harry's knuckles tightened over his quill and he opened his mouth, prepared to retort with some angry but unwise insult, when Ginny beat him to it.

"Jealous, Malfoy?" she asked, without looking up from her book.

"Jealous of what?" he shot back with a sneer.

"Harry, who actually has a chance with Hermione, whereas the only time she ever looks at you is to mock you, hex you, or both at the same time."

Malfoy sputtered incoherently for a few seconds, apparently surprised by this attack coming from a peaceful looking girl who was studying the Banishing Charm, before turning pink in the face and stammering,

"Weasel!" before turning on his heel and stalking out of the library. Crabbe and Goyle blinked to each other in confusion, and turned to Harry.

"Follow him!" he prodded, exasperated, and the two gorilla-like wizards hurried out of the library behind Draco. The door was still swinging shut when Harry launched himself into Ginny's lap and pulled her into the kiss of a lifetime. He could feel her underneath him, rigid with shock as she always was when he threw himself on her, but Harry knew that this was the last time he'd be able to kiss her, so he kissed her with all of the pent-up frustration and passion he'd been holding in for so long. The point at which he ordinarily would've broken the kiss came and went. Harry brought his right hand from where it had been braced against the chair beside her head to touch her cheek before pulling away, but before his lips had left hers, the entire world crashed down into the dust and the parchment of the Hogwarts library.

Ginny Weasley was kissing him back.

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Harry Potter was happier than he could ever remember being. Ginny's lips were moving just as fervently as his were, and his hands had left the back of the chair completely to tangle themselves in her hair. Harry vaguely wondered whether having his full weight in her lap would crush her, but the feeling of her small hand running down the length of his spine was enough to convince him that he didn't really care. This was it. Ginny liked him. She _must_. He was going to pull away, charm her into falling madly in love with him, and they were going to be happy and snog every day for the rest of his life. With this beautiful vision filling his head and lightening his heart, Harry gently broke the kiss and pulled slightly back to stare into Ginny's eyes.

The look he saw there nearly broke his heart. Ginny did not look like a girl who was madly in love, she looked like a girl who was more confused than she had ever been in her life. She looked hurt, she looked afraid, and she looked mildly angry, and Harry, as clueless as he was when it came to girls and their 'feelings', knew enough to know that wasn't how he wanted her to react to what had just happened between them. He stared into her eyes, crushed by her lack of responsiveness, for a few more moments before realizing he was still straddling her lap.

"Bloody hell!" he cursed under his breath as he leaped back into his chair, and dove for his wand.

"Harry?" Ginny asked behind him, apparently befuddled by his sudden need to paw through the robe he had long since removed and tossed next to his chair. "Turn around for a moment and tell me, if you would, what in the hell just happened."

"We just figured out where we both stand, is what happened," Harry replied, grabbing his wand and turning to point it straight at her. "And I'm sorry, Gin, but now that I know the truth about you I can't let you remember the truth about me."

"What?" Ginny shrieked, staring with wide, fearful eyes at the wand he had trained on her. "You can't let me remember? You can't let me remember _what_? That you kissed me? Well, Harry James Potter, I think that you had sure as hell better explain why you kissed me before you make me forget it!"

Harry opened his mouth to say something, he didn't know what, but he was momentarily distracted by the reentrance of Malfoy and his cronies, who had apparently regrouped and were prepared to seek their revenge on Ginny for her insolence. Harry panicked and hurried to summon a vision of himself kissing Ginny in his mind, preparing to erase it from hers, while cursing Malfoy for his bad timing and for his indirect causation of the situation he found himself in.

"_Obliviate!_" Harry murmured, and Ginny's eyes went blank. He kept one eye trained on the redhead's face, waiting for the light of recognition to dawn, while hiding his wand and watching Madam Pince delay Malfoy's approach by demanding what he was doing in the library with no apparent study materials.

"Ginny?" Harry asked, as she began to blink in confusion. "You okay?"

"_Weird," _he thought to himself. _"It's never taken her nearly this long to bounce back before."_

"Gin?" he asked again, waving a hand in front of her face. Finally, Ginny shook her head and looked at him.

"Harry?" she asked, slightly confused. "I… I'm sorry, I must have spaced out or something."

"Are you all right now?" he asked, genuinely concerned by her uncharacteristic response to the Memory Charm.

"I think so," Ginny said slowly, shaking her head again. "That was just really strange." Harry continued to watch her closely as she scanned the familiar surroundings, trying, he assumed, to regain her bearings. Her eyes fell on Malfoy, who was still trying to convince the elderly librarian that he and his friends were here to study rather than to harass Harry and Ginny.

"Whoa," Ginny said, her eyes widening. "Who's the fox?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Harry demanded, shocked to find her eying Malfoy in an appraising, appreciatory sort of way.

"That blonde bloke, over there, with Crabbe and Goyle. Who is he? I've never seen him before."

"You mean Malfoy?" Harry asked, going pale and dreading her response.

"I guess," she replied, still staring at the boy in question. "He's a Slytherin, judging by his tie and his company." She turned to Harry in interest. "Do you know him?"

"Sort of," he responded, horrified with what he had done, and noting with alarm that Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had beaten Madam Pince down and were heading there way once more. "You know what? I'll go talk to him for you, okay? Okay, be right back!"

Harry hurried off and pulled Malfoy from his path and in between two bookshelves, shielding them both from Ginny's vision.

"Potter! What do you think you're doing?" Malfoy began, but Harry cut him off.

"Look, Malfoy, Ginny's practicing some charms and she just had a bad run with a Memory Charm. She had no idea who you are or what's between you two or anything, so until I can figure out how to fix it, stay away from her, okay?" Harry finished hurriedly, quite worried by the look of glee on Malfoy's face.

"She doesn't know who I am?" he confirmed.

"Right."

"But she remembers everything else," he asked. "Including Crabbe and Goyle?"

"Yes," Harry replied impatiently. "So stay away from her until I can make her remember, or she might get really confused."

"You know, Potter," Malfoy said airily, stepping out from between the bookshelves once more. "I don't think I like that approach." And with that, Malfoy waved Crabbe and Goyle out of the library and sat down next to a delighted Ginny Weasley.

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Harry Potter was totally flabbergasted. How he could've thought that having Ginny not remember his kisses was the worst thing that could happen he'd never understand, because this was at least a thousand times worse. He had spent the last hour paging frantically through every book within reach, trying to figure out how to reverse the charm so that she'd remember Malfoy but not him, all while sneaking glances at the smiling couple that had been flirting shamelessly since Malfoy had sat down.

"Draco!" he heard Ginny squeal, giggling, and he turned pages faster.

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Harry Potter was absolutely desperate. He had spent the whole of his afternoon and much of his evening searching in vain for a partial memory charm reversal spell, until Ginny had come to find him and take him to dinner. She'd smiled constantly and told him brightly about how 'wonderful' Draco was and of all that they'd talked about. He had convinced her to eat dinner with him out by the lake, where she'd spent much of the time rambling on about how grateful she was to Harry for having introduced her to Draco, which Harry hadn't minded quite so much since she'd been, after all, extolling his virtues, but when she'd launched into discussions about the plans she and Draco had made to go to Hogsmeade together, Harry had thrown down his fork, mumbled an apology, and run back to the library. After two more hours of unsuccessful research, Harry had thrown his head back in despair and made a very rash decision, one that had landed him where he was now: standing at the foot of the stairs that led to the sixth year Gryffindor girls' dormitory, bellowing,

"HERMIONE!" No answer. "Her-MI-o-NEEEE!" Harry began to pace back in forth, wringing his hands and muttering incoherently with impatience, when finally, _finally_, he saw his bushy-haired friend descending the stone staircase. He felt like he might cry with relief as he hurried to meet her, but stopped short when he noticed the look of cold, calculating fury adorning Hermione's face.

"Hermione?" he asked meekly, a little afraid of her reply.

"Hello, Harry," she said, her cold tone belying the friendliness of her greeting. "I've just been with Ginny."

"Oh?" he asked guiltily.

"Yes," she replied. "And the strangest thing appears to have happened, but then again, I'm sure you know all about it, considering you caused it!"

Harry winced as Hermione's angry voice rose to a scream at the end of her sentence, and he glanced around at the interested faces around the common room before taking Hermione's arm and hauling her out into the hallway. She pulled out of his grip and stood, glaring at him with her hands on her hips, waiting for some sort of an explanation. Harry sighed.

"Okay," he admitted. "I may have had something to do with what happened to Ginny, but it was an accident! I need your help to fix it, Hermione, I've been looking all day and can't figure it out."

"What did you do?" Hermione hissed.

"A bad thing," Harry said evasively, closing his eyes briefly. "I kissed Ginny." Hermione blinked in confusion.

"You kissed Ginny?" she asked.

"Yes," Harry said miserably. "And she doesn't like me. I'd wanted to ask her if she did for so long, and when I finally found out, I couldn't let her remember!"

"Harry Potter," Hermione asked slowly, her voice going dangerously calm. "Did you cast a Memory Charm on Ginny Weasley?"

"Yes?" Harry replied, cringing. Hermione gaped at him for a few seconds before smacking him upside the head. "Ow! Hermione!"

"I can't believe you did that!" she scolded. "You erased the memory of one of your best friends, and you did such a rubbish job of it that she's gallivanting about, mooning over Draco Malfoy! Harry! We have to fix this!"

"I know, Hermione, I know!" he interrupted. "But I can't figure out how!"

"What do you mean, you don't know how?" she asked impatiently. "You used a simple "Obliviate", didn't you? All we need to use is the Reversal Charm."

"I know," Harry replied, feeling frustrated and more than a little guilty. "But I need for her to remember Malfoy but not me snogging her!" Hermione blinked three times in quick succession, seemingly bewildered by what he had just said.

"A partial reversal charm? Harry, there is no such thing! Not to mention the moral obligation you have to Ginny to tell her the truth! You have to use the Reversal Charm, and quickly, before the entire castle realizes that she's gone completely daft!"

"Will the Reversal Charm undo just this Memory Charm, or every Memory Charm that Ginny has ever had cast on her?" Harry asked, dreading the answer.

"Every Charm of course, why do you ask? You don't think there have been others, do you?" Hermione suddenly looked nervous about undoing the charm, and Harry decided to work her indecision to his advantage.

"There very well might be, you know, what with the Chamber and everything." Hermione pondered this while Harry waited hopefully, but she glared at him and shook her head.

"No, Harry, there is no way that you are getting out of this. You have to do the Reversal Charm. Do you want me to help you?" Harry shook his head.

"No thank you, Hermione. I think this is something I have to do on my own, and take whatever sort of hexes Ginny throws at me."

"Good," Hermione said briskly. She watched Harry steel himself up for confrontation for a moment, and her brown eyes softened. She hugged him briefly and said in a much gentler tone, "I'm sorry Ginny doesn't return your feelings, Harry. Perhaps if you just give her a little time to think…"

"It doesn't matter," Harry said tensely. "She's going to hate me once she realizes what I did. Just teach me the Reversal Charm, please Hermione?"

"Of course," Hermione replied. "Remember, the spell is 'Memini', and it's cast just like 'Obliviate'. The memories won't all come back at once, mind you, but in waves, as she sees things that trigger them." She paused. "You're sure you'll be all right, Harry?"

"I'm sure," he replied, offering her a weak smile. "Has Ginny come up to bed yet?"

"Not yet," Hermione said. "The last time I saw her she was on her way to the library to catch up on the Charms homework that Malfoy distracted her from."

"I'll check there first then," Harry said, turning to leave. "Thanks, Hermione."

"Good luck, Harry," she replied, before shaking her head sadly and stepping back through the portrait hole.

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Harry Potter was plotting. From where he was standing, behind a large statue of Helga Hufflepuff holding a badger just outside the library, he could easily see Ginny and Draco. For the last few minutes they had been standing in the deserted space outside the large doors that Madam Pince had recently closed for the night, talking happily, and Harry was waiting for the perfect moment to cast the Reversal Spell.

"_Maybe,"_ he thought to himself. _"I can cast it on her but avoid her for the rest of my life, so she'll remember about Draco but never have a trigger to make her remember the snogging."_ This option seemed nice enough, except for the nagging thought of never getting to see Ginny again, not to mention the sheer impossibility of removing all signs of himself and potential triggers from Ginny's presence, forever. His resolve began to waver, but then he saw something that made his blood run cold. Draco had gathered a blushing Ginny into his arms and was leaning his lips ever so slowly towards hers. A rage that Harry didn't know he possessed consumed him, and he did the only thing he could think of to stop the horrible from happening. He pointed his wand at Ginny and murmured,

"_Memini!" _The effect was instantaneous. Ginny blinked, focused on Malfoy's approaching face, and screamed as if Voldemort himself were launching himself at her face. Before Harry or Malfoy knew what was happening, Ginny had the blonde on his back, on the ground, with her wand pointed between his wide grey eyes.

"What in the bloody hell do you think you're doing, Malfoy?" she cried, furious.

"Watch it, Weasley!" he growled, more than a little unnerved by the wand that was digging into his forehead. "You got hit with a bad Memory Charm and I thought I'd see how things might've gone with you and me without the Weasley-Malfoy grudge in the middle."

"Why?" she demanded, utterly confused.

"Well," he admitted reluctantly. "Let's just say you're not terrible to look at. I thought I might as well give it a try, while I had the chance, okay? That's all."

Ginny looked as though she were trying to think of something relevant to say, but all that came out of her mouth was an exasperated sigh. She kicked Malfoy hard in his side and stepped away from him.

"Get away from me, Malfoy, and stay there." The blonde Slytherin seemed only too happy to comply, as he jumped to his feet and hurried away, gently rubbing his wounded side. Harry took a deep, breath, and stepped out of the shadows, guiltily meeting Ginny's eyes. Ginny saw him, started to smile automatically, and froze as memories began crashing down upon her. The look in her eyes raced between emotion after emotion, and Harry could only imagine what was going through her mind.

"_The library,"_ he thought. _"The common room, the Owlery, the Quidditch pitch, the empty Transfiguration classroom, every hallway in Hogwarts…" _The list went on and on. Finally, Harry couldn't stand Ginny's shocked silence any longer,

"Gin?" he asked, stepping cautiously closer. "Ginny? Listen, I can explain. I just…" he trailed off. "I made a mistake, all right? I wanted to tell you how I feel about you, but I was too bloody scared. I never meant for it to go this far, obviously, and I can only imagine how you're feeling right now, but I would assume that spending any more time with me is not at the top of your wish list, so I'll leave you alone now, and for however long you want me to. I'm just really, really sorry." Harry turned to leave, feeling more awful than he had ever felt.

"Harry?" Ginny called, in a quavering, nervous sort of voice. Harry turned around to see her staring at him questioningly. "Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" Harry asked, stepping back towards her. "Cast the spell?"

"No. Kiss me. Why'd you kiss me?" she asked. Harry laughed mirthlessly.

"Why do you think, Ginny?" he asked, frustrated. "I fancy the hell out of you! I have forever; I've just been too dim to do anything proper about it. Every time I kissed you, I'd think that this time I'd tell you the truth and you'd say you fancied me also, and everything would be wonderful. But every time I stopped kissing you, you'd look at me all confused and angry, and I was too afraid. I'm sorry, I really am, I just couldn't stand the thought of you telling me you didn't want to be with me!"

"What makes you think I don't want to be with you?" she asked, smiling slightly. Harry's blood froze in his veins, as hopes that he didn't want raised began to bubble towards the surface.

"Well," he stammered. "I just figured that since you'd been… And Hermione said… So… You do want to be with me?"

"Don't get me wrong, Harry, what you did was horrible and wrong and a total invasion of privacy, but between the fact that I have fancied you for a good long time now, and the fact that there is no way I am turning down the opportunity to get such quality snogging on a regular basis, I am willing to overlook it. For now, anyway. You may fully expect this to be drug up as dirt against you when we argue, but other than that, you're good as gold, Potter."

Harry stood stock still for a full fifteen seconds while Ginny's words sank in.

"I'm… I'm good as gold?" he asked stupidly, still trying to absorb as truth the impossibility of her having feelings for him.

"Yes!" Ginny laughed, throwing her arms around his neck. "Good as gold. Better, in fact, if you kiss me soundly within the next few seconds."

Harry laughed with delight, gathered the redhead up in his arms, and swung her around twice before setting her gently down on her feet once more. When their eyes caught, the amusement in them faded away, replaced by a completely serious, but affectionate expression. Harry reached up to tuck a lock of fiery red hair behind her ear, and he took a deep breath. Ginny cocked her head at him.

"Nervous, Potter?" she asked teasingly.

"Just a bit," he admitted.

"You've done this often enough, I'd wager," Ginny shot back.

"Sure, but this time you'll actually remember it," Harry replied with a grin. "I have to live up to your recently recovered memories."

"As long as I get to remember this time, you can do pretty much whatever you want," Ginny said with a sly smile that made Harry lose interest in their friendly banter and kiss her, kiss her the way he always did, but it was all somehow brighter, somehow more magical, because this kiss was more than a kiss. This kiss was a promise; a promise that he had every intention of fighting to keep.

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Harry Potter was the happiest man in the entire world. That's all there is to say about that.


End file.
